It's Only Natural

You might have noticed by now that I enjoy changing the color of my hair often. It helps that my sister chose the fabulous profession of being a cosmetologist.

Have you ever seen my natural color hair? Those who have will have known me for at least a decade, give or take a year. It’s drab. It’s so drab it doesn’t even have a name for it. It’s that color between dark blonde and light brown that doesn’t have a proper name and is sometimes referred to as “dirty” blonde or “dishwater” blonde. Eww. Why in the world would anyone want the words dirty or dishwater used to describe their hair?? So I add a little color in my life.

I’ve often wondered what Heavenly Father was thinking when he gave me this hair color. I mean, it’s most certainly NOT me, yet He should know me better than anyone as he is my creator. I finally found my answer.

After dyeing my hair a new color I am often asked, “How do you always manage to pull it off?” By that they mean how do I manage to have so many different colors look good on me? The answer is my skin tones are set to match my natural hair color. I have a very bland coloring of skin that matches my drab hair color. What does this mean? My coloring is bland enough it’s one of those colors that goes with just about everything.

Do you see the connection now? My Father in Heaven does know me. He knew that I would need the bold colors of life and that I would not settle for just one fabulous color. And so He did what any loving Father would do: he gave me the proper coloring to allow me to play with my hair color and be as outrageous or calm as I may choose to be. And for that I am thankful.

Windy with Sister and President Kempton (my first day in the mission)
This is the most recent picture I own with my Natural hair color.

Percy Jackson

My blogging time seems to have decreased exponentially as my job and school work load have increased linearly. In other words: I've been busy. My time has been well spent, I got an A on that midterm!

Between my busy moments I've had time to start a new series called Percy Jackson and the Olympians by Rick Riordan. Book number one is The Lightning Thief, you might have heard of it as the film adaptation will be out in February.

It's become my new addiction. I finished book one and returned it to the library this week. Now I find myself impatiently waiting for book two to come in, I am currently number 16 on the hold list.

Ugh. Only 16!?

At least the number is decreasing, I was 18 yesterday. Yes, I've begun to check daily for my hold status. I should probably just buy the books.

I never much enjoyed English classes in High School, it was not my thing. However I did enjoy the section where we studied Greek Mythology. For some reason this caught my attention. For this same reason I've found these books interesting. The Greek gods are immortal so they must still be around today. They often were caught seducing a human or two and producing a demigod child who becomes a hero. So naturally a few of these half-gods are around today as well.

It only makes sense.

Maleficent, the Mistress of All Evil

Halloween was one long day for me. I still managed to play dress up as one of my all time favorite 'bad-guys' on my way to the YSA Halloween Dance one last time.

On sleepless roads the sleepless go

Sighing I shut the lid to my laptop. Done, I say to myself. That last homework assignment only took me 12 hours to complete. It wasn’t hard exactly, just long.

Who am I fooling, it was hard.

‘The first part of your midterm will be posted online tomorrow, there will be both a written part and a project requiring the use of MATLAB,’ Dr. Adams foreboding voice rings through my mind with a hint of dread. I slip my contacts out and feel the instant relief.

I’m sure I could have written better code for that last problem, I think. A for loop maybe? I’m sure I did it the hard way. Maybe I should redo—stop! I shake my head slightly in an attempt to clear it. It’s done. The matrix images turned out correctly. It’ll be ok.

The soft hum of the electric toothbrush is soothing while it massages my gums. I will need to be familiar with all 3 ways to project a vector onto the range of A. The SVD is easy enough, QR factorization, and then, uh, does that other one have a name? Of course all of that depends on the matrix having full rank.

Back in my bedroom I slip on my favorite chemise, the white one with blue flowers printed on it. Then there was that one homework problem on the eigenvalue decomposition of a matrix, why didn’t we cover that in class? It sure helped knowing U and V are unitary. “Ugh,” I hiss under my breath as I sit on the edge of my bed. I’ll never get to sleep like this, I need an ‘off’ switch.

Glancing down I see the one thing that will save me. I slide off my bed and onto the floor grabbing my electric guitar conveniently sitting on its stand just feet away. The smooth white surface is familiar to my fingers; a small grin appears on my face. Playing a handful of chords I test the sound before jumping into my most recent song project. A very simple song but the beat just makes it fun to play.

All thoughts of math and homework are quickly slipping away. I wonder to myself, where is my music for that Jimmy Eat World song I love so much? Switching to the acoustic guitar and grabbing my capo I play through the chords, my smile increasing as I go. I can almost hear his voice singing,

May angels lead you in.
Hear you me my friends.
On sleepless roads the sleepless go.
May angels lead you in.

Before long I gently place my guitar back on its stand where she waits to save my sanity another day.

A Small Chance to Serve

Many women have fabulous talents they use to serve others. Some cook, some make quilts, some make little intricate cards to send to others. Me? I do math. I’ve often wondered how my talents in math can help someone else. I mean, other than what I already do as a math tutor.

Friday I had the chance to volunteer as a math scribe for the University of Washington. One of the students in an upper level math class has a disability which does not allow him to write. Math is full all sorts of odd symbols to make it difficult for anyone to do this job. That’s me and my talents came in quite handy. It was a fun to be able to help him out.

I walked away from this experience with two things on my mind. Number One: I am selfishly ungrateful for my own body. It’s so easy to fall into the trap of thinking about what is wrong with my body when I should be thinking about everything that is right. Number Two: I am highly impressed with this guy for his ambitions and for doing everything he has accomplished. It was a reminder to me that my life is exactly what I choose to make of it.

I needed a change.

Some have called it the color of fall. Some ask if it's for Halloween. However most say it looks like the color of fire.

And I convinced Carly to go Red at the same time :)

Holly

For lunch today I met up with Holly who is fabulously interesting and fun. We were roommates for 3 months in an apartment in Seattle just before I left on my mission. We shared a large bedroom where we stayed up late talking, laughing, burping the alphabet, and having all sorts of riotous fun. Plus making our 3rd roommate insanely jealous that she did not share a room with us as well. That was 9 years ago.

Today Holly lives far away on the other side of the state. She has a degree in Anthropology which means she is basically Indiana Jones.

While rooming together I had a pile of 'Just Do The Math' window stickers and I hung one of them in our window by my bed. When moving out I left it so Holly would always remember me. Turns out she took that sticker and put it in the window of her car. So. Cool.

Third Times the Charm

Note: The events of this blog post took place one week, three hours, ten minutes and thirty-four seconds ago.

One of the most amazing experiences of my life happened at 13,000 feet as I stepped out of a plane into the open air.

The first time I experienced this was for my 29th birthday. I did a tandem dive with a few friends.

The second time was exactly 1 week later when Jason and I returned for the day-long class and jumped out on our own. Yes. I had my own parachute, pulled my own rip chord and did everything just right... up until I came in for my landing and, well, it was slightly ungraceful. I ended up with a minor tear in my MCL and on crutches. No fear, this did not stop my desire to go again.

The third time was just last weekend with a few new friends, 2 of them celebrating birthdays of their own. I must say it was even better this time! I went tandem again, to be on the safe side, and because this allowed me to go with my friends as well. This time I knew what to expect, I knew how everything worked, I didn't have to worry about my own landing. All I did was sit back and enjoy the ride.

The most thrilling part is the moment I left the safety of the plane and began to free fall. I cannot describe this, you must experience it for yourself. 13,000 feet is above the clouds, it's amazing to be there, in the sky, above a cloud. However we did not remain above the clouds for long. We quickly approached a small cloud and then went right through it. I've touched a cloud! It feels just like air, only slightly thicker air, if that makes sense. Breaking through suddenly we saw the beauty of the Northwest all around. Mountains, lakes, trees, airplane hangar. My friend Keri described this as "God's view" of the Earth.

Free fall lasts about 50 to 60 seconds before they pull the chute. Dennis, my tandem instructor, gave me a little tap on the shoulders to let me know just before he pulled the rip chord. Whoosh! We slow down and my legs come flying down back under me again. Once flying under canopy we are going slow enough to talk and Dennis points out some of the surrounding areas before handing me the toggles and letting me steer for a little bit. One hard pull to the left and we go swirling to the left--another sensation you'll just have to experience! After a couple minutes floating through the air we slide in for a smooth landing on the grass. (One day I'll figure out how to do that on my own).

Wow. Wow! Seriously, wow! What a rush!

I'd do it again any time the funds are available! Anyone else wanna come next time!?

I didn't get the pictures this time around, but here are a couple from Melissa's batch.

Melissa ~ Carly ~ Windy ~ Christie ~ Brenda
Here we are just before leaving the hangar, we're dressed up in our finest and ready to rock!

Dennis and myself walking out to the plane. This picture makes me laugh.

And here we are just moments after landing. Notice the smiles on our faces!!

This wouldn't be a complete blog post without at least one actual sky shot of me skydiving. I have a few older pictures from my first dive for your viewing pleasure. But remember, these are just about a year old now.

Classic. I love the look on my face.

I'm free!!! Free fallin'!!

And safely back on the ground.

A note on Dennis who you see in several of the pictures: I adore this man. I hardly know him at all, yet I just adore him. Dennis has been there for all 3 of my dives, my tandem instructor for the first and third, but he was also one of the instructors who jumped with me to make sure things went ok on my own. On that dive I noticed my altimeter was broken while flying up for the jump. I pointed this out to Dennis and he immediately, without hesitation, gave me his altimeter off his own wrist and jumped without one. What a guy. How could I not just adore a guy who has, quite literally, saved my life three times.

For another fabulous post and even more incredible pictures check out Brenda's blog.

____________________

"Once you have flown, you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward; for there you have been, there you long to return."
-Leonardo da Vinci-

Oneirology

Did you know Oneirology is the scientific study of dreams? This is a topic that has always interested me. I even own a dream dictionary or two.

I have been blessed with extremely vivid dreams. I used to think everyone had these until I started describing the detail to friends who would always be shocked. Typically I enjoy my dreams as I find them immensely entertaining. Although last nights dream was not entertaining all. It's now 15 hours later and I still can't shake the images.

So to take my mind off things I spent some time looking up songs that talk about dreams. Here are a few of my favorites, in no particular order.

Dream On by Areosmith

All I Have To Do Is Dream by The Everly Brothers

A Bad Dream by Keane

Dreamin' by Weezer

A Kiss To Build A Dream On by Louis Armstrong

Daydream by Lovin' Spoonful

I Have A Dream by ABBA (Mamma Mia Soundtrack)

Book Review: The Well of Lost Plots

The Well of Lost Plots
A Thursday Next Novel
by Jasper Fforde
Rating: 5 starts out of 5
"it was amazing"

It is true: Fforde gets better and better with each book! This is number 3 in the Thursday Next Series and I enjoyed it the most (so far).

There is so much detail I hardly know where to begin. Our last book left us off with Thursday pregnant and her husband eradicated. She decided to take a vacation and go somewhere safe to have this baby, where the Goliath Corporation cannot touch her. Only there is no place in her world they cannot touch... so she must leave her world and enter the Book World. Thursday decides to particpate it the Character Exchange program and resides in a book that is still being written in The Well of Lost Plots. She is also apprenticed to Mrs. Havisham, of Great Expectations, at Jurisfiction (the book world policing agency).

As usual where Thursday goes trouble will find her. This time a new and improved Operating System for the book world is about to be unleashed. It's perfect. It will be the ultimate reading experience! Except the Jurisfiction agents assigned to test out the new system are dying in what appears to be normal everyday accidents. At the same time Thursday is fighting off Aornis Hades who is out for revenge for her brother's death. Aornis is a mnemonomorph capable of altering anothers memories, slowly she is removing all memories of Thursdays husband. Thursday finds herself fighting the BookWorld enemies by day and Aornis by night.

There are 2 things I love about this book. First the attention to detail Fforde uses. There were so many little seemingly insignificant things that all managed to come into play at some point in the book. Clever. Brilliant.

Secondly is the style of writing. There's only one way to know what I am talking about, and that is with a sample that had me laughing and confused and rereading a number of times. This will be taken out of context, but all you need to know is Jurisfiction is meeting to discuss the proper use of certain terms in books. These things need policing, or they could get out of hand...

'Good. Item seven. The had had and that that problem. Lady Cavendish, weren't you working on this?'

Lady Cavendish stood up and gathered her thoughts. 'Indeed. The use of had had and that that has to be strictly controlled; they can interrupt the ImaginoTransference quite dramatically, causing readers to go back over the sentence in confusion, something we try to avoid.'

'Go on.'

'It's mostly an unlicensed usage problem. At the last count David Copperfield alone had had had had sixty-three times, all but ten unapproved. Pilgrim's Progress may also be a problem owing to its had had / that that ratio.'

'So what's the problem in Progress?'

'That that had that that ten times but had had had had only thrice. Increased had had usage had had to be overlooked but not if the number exceeds that that that usage.'

'Hmm,' said the Bellman. 'I thought had had had had TGC's approval for use in Dickens? What's the problem?'

'Take the first had had and that that in the book by way of example,' explained Lady Cavendish. 'You would have thought that that first had had had had good occasion to be seen as had, had you not? Had had had approval but had had had not; equally it is true to say that that that that had had approval but that that other that that had not.'

'So the problem with that other that that was that—?'

'That that other-other that that had had approval.'

'Okay,' said the Bellman, whose head was in danger of falling apart like a chocolate orange, 'let me get this straight: David Copperfield, unlike Pilgrim’s Progress, which had had had, had had had had. Had had had had TGC's approval?'

There was a very long pause.

'Right,' said the Bellman with a sigh. 'That's it for the moment.'